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if I wanted to create an "email list" along the lines of google groups (and eventually integrate with a web site), what services should I look into? I haven't really dealt with email before so I'm not 100% sure how it all works. I do know I need to be careful about being blacklisted, etc. Do I use something like sendgrid/mailman? I imagine all emails go to my server when a user hits "reply all" and on my end I push that email as though it came from the user but really it came from my "mail" server? It seems a user doesn't need to "reply all" to send to the list and there is no quick way to reply to just one user (which is a good thing for this app).

So the way I imagine this working:

1) I use something like sendgrid to "listen" for emails coming to list@mywebsite.com

2) When emails come (i.e from userx) I do some filtering for spam, etc and then push them all out to "all users/subscribers"

3) All users get something that is "from user x" (but it's really from my server, on google groups it says "via googlegroups") and the "reply to" is list@mywebsite.com

I imagine this is how it all works but I'm not 100% sure this is correct or if sendgrid will allow me to do this (and if it will cost too much).

Thanks

user885355
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4 Answers4

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It really depends on what your needs and skills are. For simple mailing lists there is some very established software such as ListServ or MajorDomo

If you're not running a Unix variant, or you're not confident setting up this kind of software they might not be suitable though.

CPJ
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  • I was hoping to use something like sendgrid to avoid dealing with all the requirements of setting up a proper email server but I wasn't sure if there were better options out there. I plan to implement a companion website that mirrors a lot of the functionality of the mailing list. I'm comfortable working in a unix based environment and I planned to code the web side myself. – user885355 Sep 06 '11 at 19:17
  • There are hosted solutions out there if that would be suitable - https://fiesta.cc/ is one I've used of before (athough not for a professional site), and I see that phpList is betaing hosted solutions now too http://www.phplist.com/hosted and I'm sure that a quick google would turn up some more options. You could always use a different hosted SMTP provider (a lot of hosting will include this for instance) and ListServ/MajorDomo so you don't have to set up the mail bit or pay out for sendGrid. – CPJ Sep 07 '11 at 11:46
  • Unless you're expecting a huge volume immediately, you could always start off with a hosted solution, then migrate to hosted email with your own list software, then fully self-managed as things grow. – CPJ Sep 07 '11 at 11:46
  • Thanks but I don't think phpList does what I need. They claim they are not like mailman and more like a newsletter: "phplist is a one-way email announcement delivery system. It is great for newsletters, publicity lists, notifications, and many other uses. (It is different from group mailing list systems like mailman.)" I'm looking into yahoo groups to get an idea of how a group mailing list might work with something besides gmail. – user885355 Sep 07 '11 at 21:57
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You might look at ezmlm

EZmlm-idx is a nice mailing list add-on to Qmail. When we install Qmailadmin later on, you'll see that EZmlm-idx integrates seamlessly into Qmailadmin to provide a very user friendly mailing list management interface. As an added bonus, Vpopmail (which we will install as well) will let you control what users can and cannot use mailing lists! Quoted from qmailrocks

You do not need to worry about sendgrid. Just get a cheap vps,configure DNS and, install MTA(postfix,qmail,sendmail) imap(courier,dovecot), a modern listserve, and let it do it's magic! On the lists where I am subscribed , I have the option to reply to a post, or the whole group.

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You can use SendGrid to handle your incoming email, but you will have to re-assemble the message before sending it out since it will be posted to your incoming parse URL in a, well, parsed way. The good news is that SendGrid can handle the spam check for you.

SendGrid currently doesn't charge for inbound parsing, but of course that may change. So as far as your cost goes, you would only use credits for the mail you send. Keep in mind that SendGrid only provides the Parse API to silver ($80/mo) customers or customers on the free (200 emails/day) plan, but there are plans to add a lower tier package that also has access to all APIs.

You can also use SendGrid to handle unsubscribes, but if you are using another solution for list management that's probably superfluous.

bwest
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Googling for "mailing list hosting" brings up a wealth of sites, some of them free at least under some conditions. Many of them will use something like Mailman / Majordomo / Listserv; certainly you can run Mailman or Majordomo on your own server if you like, as well, so your question doesn't really make sense from that point of view. Yahoo Groups / Google Groups can also happily host a list for you. Do you need the list to be visible to subscribers only? Google Groups and Yahoo Groups will host private lists, too.

A mailing list basically works like Bcc: mail. You send to the mailing list's submission address; it then replaces some of the headers (often the Sender: and perhaps Reply-To:) and then redistributes the message to all the subscribers. Behind the scenes, it might rewrite some headers to make sure bounce messages come back to the list software for further handling (for example, to automatically unsubscribe addresses which consistently return a bounce), and often, it distributes the message with some delay in order not to saturate the outgoing bandwidth and/or choke a receiving server; though some parts of this are also handled by the regular mail transport agent (MTA -- Postfix or Sendmail or what have you).

tripleee
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